In Germany, universities and specialized private agencies and companies provide content monitoring. There are some permanent issue monitoring instruments in Germany, which are publicly accessible, although some of them are not free of charge. For the monitoring of TV contents there are two instruments (IFEM – Institut für empirische Medienforschung and GöfaK Medienforschung), which are publicly funded and published in special journals (e.g., Krüger 2009). A third, MediaTenor, sell their results for a fee. The Landesmedienanstalten, which are funded through public licence fees, monitor commercial TV programmes. Their reports are publicly accessible by Internet. Content monitoring for newspapers is often commercial (media clipping services); two major services are available for a fee: MediaTenor and Ausschnitt Pressedienst. Some results of the monitors Landau Media Monitoring and Pressewatch can be obtained free of charge, but generally they are not for free. Totally free monitoring instruments have been established by unions and parts of non-governmental organizations and scientific institutions or by initiatives. All of these monitoring instruments – free or non-free – are normally not published by relevant news media, but only by scientific journals or special interest magazines. Consequently, their public visibility is rather low.
